Many varieties of semiconductor devices have been manufactured having various applications in numerous disciplines. Such silicon-based semiconductor devices often include metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFET), such as p-channel MOS (PMOS), n-channel MOS (NMOS) and complementary MOS (CMOS) transistors, bipolar transistors, BiCMOS transistors. Such MOSFET devices include an insulating material between a conductive gate and silicon-like substrate; therefore, these devices are generally referred to as IGFETs (insulated-gate FET).
The electronics industry continues to rely upon advances in semiconductor technologies to realize higher-function devices in more compact areas. Applications realizing higher-functioning devices require integrating a large number of electronic devices into a single silicon wafer. As the number of devices per given area of the silicon wafer increases, the manufacturing process becomes more difficult.
After manufacturing, the wafer containing from hundreds to thousands of device die, has to be diced up into individual active devices. There is a need for a process that efficiently can perform the dicing process to maintain acceptable yields and contain costs.